North Norfolk Business Impact Survey

On 10 March, Boris Johnson outlined the UK Government’s Covid 19 Recovery Strategy. This strategy sets out a phased approach to the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions, although many local businesses will still not be able to operate. Further details as to which businesses can and cannot open may be found here. For those businesses that can open, the Government have produced a series of guides (found here) to ensure businesses can operate safely and limit risks to their customers and employees.

North Norfolk District Council has today launched the North Norfolk Business Impact Survey. The responses to the survey will be vital to building our business intelligence and our understanding as to scale of impact the pandemic has had on local businesses. The results of this will inform our recovery plans and provide the evidence base to potentially influence future business funding or business support programmes.

The survey should time well, as businesses will likely now have greater clarity in terms of their business outlook than they perhaps did have in the previous weeks, when they possibly did not know what support or funding they would be able to access, nor have any certainty as to if or when they could open their business. Nevertheless, it is recognised that these are still extremely challenging times for businesses, the impact of which might be felt for months and likely years. The clearer the picture we have, the more effective we can be in responding to their needs.